REA wins first round in website fight with Domain

By Mathew Dunckley & David Estcourt

Real estate listings giant REA Group has launched court action against rival Domain Group claiming a tie up with an American website breaches its trademark rights.

Federal Court documents lodged ahead of an urgent hearing on Friday show REA is upset that Domain has done a deal with dominant US-based online real estate sales company Zillow.

Australia's two biggest property websites are in court.Credit:Rob Homer

The deal, according to REA, meant that Australians who type realestate.com into their web browser are given the option of searching for Australian property which then takes them to the Domain website.

REA's marquee asset is the realestate.com.au website and it claims the American site run by Zillow uses a red colour scheme and house logo that is too similar to its own trademarked versions.

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Zillow uses the realestate.com website to specifically target first home buyers and operates the site alongside its own main site at the address zillow.com.

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On Friday, the Federal Court backed with orders an arrangement struck between the parties that will see Domain cease the referral arrangement until the matter can be examined at a full hearing this week.

REA told the court that it had written to Fairfax Media, which is publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age as well as majority owner of Domain, in July raising its concerns about the situation and that Fairfax had agreed to cease the referral arrangement.

Fairfax agreed at the time to notify REA in writing if the situation changed and in early November it flagged it intended to restart the referral arrangement. That sparked the court action.

"The purpose of Domain's conduct is to attract further visits to the Domain website by using the reputation and goodwill of the applicants and the REA business, thereby obtaining a competitive advantage over the applicants and the REA business," the documents say

"In so doing, Domain is deliberately using the intellectual property of the applicants for commercial gain."

Domain does not consider that there is any basis for the allegations.

Domain spokesman

A Domain spokesperson said: "Domain does not consider that there is any basis for the allegations."

Zillow has extensive links to Australia as its single biggest shareholder, with a stake of about 26 per cent of the $US4 billion ($5.5 billion) company, is Sydney-based fund Caledonia Investments which is in turn backed by some of the nation's wealthiest families.

Zillow has about a 70 per cent share of the digital real estate market in the US, based on mobile app usage. Realtor.com, owned by News Corp, and now ultimately under Fellows' control, has about 20 per cent.